The New Orleans Saints cleared out their lockers Tuesday in a glum atmosphere, a rare double whammy induced by a postseason loss in the past and the looming prospect of a football stoppage in the future.

Michael DeMocker/The Times-PicayuneNew Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees seems to be prepared for a long layoff.

The loss, as huge favorites, to the Seattle Seahawks in the wild-card playoff game Saturday remained a bitter pill. But losses, however unpleasant, are a part of athletic life.

"The season's over, and you don't want it to be over when there's still football to be played," safety Pierson Prioleau said.

More pressing was the knowledge that athletic life might be in jeopardy, at least in the short term. With the collective bargaining agreement between the NFL owners and players due to expire in March, the players' union has repeatedly voiced fears of a lockout before the 2011 season. There is no requirement the sides come to an agreement by March, or prepare for a protracted and possibly hostile negotiation, but the players said Tuesday they are aware of that possibility while also dreading it.

As usual, quarterback and union executive Drew Brees stepped into the breach and outlined the players' point of view.

"It's a serious concern, it's definitely a concern, when you look at every move that ownership has made in regard to the negotiation of their TV contracts and the league with the networks Ñ they're set to get paid even if we don't play Ñ so there's revenue streams in place for ownership to make money even if we don't play games. Which would let you (say) that they're preparing for (a lockout) to happen," Brees said.

"So we as players have to do the same. We've been saving, we've been talking about it, communicating within the teams and within the (union) just to prepare for a worst-case scenario, which would be that they locked the doors on us, locked the stadiums, and they don't allow us to play football."

Back in December the union warned players they should save their last three game checks, a pose most players said they adopted.

"I've been saving paychecks for a long time," tight end David Thomas said. "It's something that, when we realized this might come up, we started putting money aside, and hopefully everybody has done that."

Thomas, like some two dozen other Saints, also are facing contract expirations. No one knows when contract negotiations might begin, given the uncertainty of the labor deal, or how a new deal might change the rules of such negotiations.

"This is a big offseason for me and also for the whole NFL, and we've got to just kind of wait and see what happens," Thomas said.

"It's definitely a concern Ñ this is my job, and any time I'm not going to be able to work that's a concern, especially because I've got a wife and two kids and all that to go home to. My contract is up, so I've told them I want to be back here, so if we can get all the CBA stuff ironed out we can get a contract, but until that time comes we're just kind of in limbo."

Brees insisted the players have no interest in a forced respite, and he attempted to put the blame for any future loss squarely on the owners.

"I think the big thing to communicate here is there is a big difference between a lockout and a strike," Brees said. "You know, there were strikes back in '74, '82, '87, where the players actually went on strike and said Ôwe need better benefits and therefore we're not going to play until we get that.' This is not a strike. This is a lockout. This is Ñ we as players want to play, we want to come to the locker room, we want to practice and go out on game day and play, but the doors are locked, we're not allowed to come in and play.

"Therefore football's being taken away from us, taken away from the fans Ñ none of that is what we want or desire. That's kind of the hard part right now is understanding that football might be taken away from us and the fans for a period of time, maybe a year, and we just have to prepare for that."

"We're hoping for the best and preparing for the worst," running back Reggie Bush said.

And that attitude could mean genuine problems for professional football.

"We're prepared, we're prepared to do whatever we need to do," Brees said. "We're preparing for a lockout, we're preparing to have to pay for our own medical insurance starting in March, we're preparing to not receive a paycheck here for the next year Ñ and just making sure that we're all taking care of one another."

And that dire situation might not be resolved quickly, he added.

"It could be a long one, yeah," Brees said. "If a deal's not done by March, the chances of a deal getting done by the season are slim. Therefore a lockout would be almost inevitable."

At the same time, Brees noted several times that the players are "reasonable businessmen," and that they understand what is at stake. If the owners can prove hardship, the players will make the necessary sacrifices. But absent such proof, Brees said, the players must stand firm, even while he acknowledged that, to the outsider, "this is a fight between billionaires and millionaires."

"What's happening here with this negotiation is that revenue is going up Ñ we get the revenue numbers every year," he continued. "And yet we're being asked to take, collectively, players around the league, a $1 billion pay cut. So something doesn't make sense there.

"But we as reasonable businessmen, and we've got a great partnership with the league, are just asking, Ôwe would like to see' Ñ if you tell us the system is broken, and that you're not making as much money, well, we know the revenue numbers, but we just don't know your cost. So that's something you need to show us. Show us that you're losing money, and we're all reasonable. We'll sit down and we'll come to a resolution. But we've gotten none of that information, none of that cost information has been shown to us."

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James Varney can be reached at jvarney@timespicayune.com or at 504.717.1156